371 U.S. 471 (1963)
On the morning of June 4, 1959, federal narcotics agents in San Francisco arrested Hom Way after six weeks of surveillance and recovered heroin from his possession.1 Hom Way, who had never before served as an informant, told the agents he had purchased an ounce of heroin the previous night from a man known to him only as "Blackie Toy," the proprietor of a laundry on Leavenworth Street.2
Later that morning six or seven agents went to Oye's Laundry at 1733 Leavenworth Street, operated by petitioner James Wah Toy.3 Agent Alton Wong, of Chinese ancestry, rang the bell and told Toy he was calling for laundry and dry cleaning.4 When Toy replied that the business did not open until 8 a.m. and began to close the door, Wong displayed his badge and identified himself as a federal narcotics agent.5 Toy immediately slammed the door and ran down the hallway to his living quarters at the rear of the premises, where his wife and child were sleeping in a bedroom.6 The agents broke open the door, followed Toy into the bedroom, and arrested him after he reached into a nightstand drawer.7
Toy made oral statements to the agents in the bedroom implicating a man he knew only as Johnny who lived on Eleventh Avenue.8 The agents went directly to that address, entered the premises, arrested Johnny Yee, and recovered several tubes containing just less than one ounce of heroin from a bureau drawer in the bedroom.9 Yee told the agents that Toy and another Chinese known to him only as "Sea Dog" had brought the heroin to him four days earlier.10 The agents then arrested petitioner Wong Sun without a warrant at his residence, relying on the statements obtained from Toy and Yee.11
Toy, Yee, and Wong Sun were each arraigned before a United States Commissioner on complaints charging violations of 21 U.S.C. § 174 and released on their own recognizance.12 Several days later Agent William Wong, also of Chinese ancestry, separately interrogated the three men at the Narcotics Bureau office, advised each of his right to counsel and to withhold information, and prepared typewritten statements in English from rough notes of the interviews.13 Toy read his statement aloud in English, made handwritten corrections, but refused to sign it.14 Wong Sun, who had difficulty understanding English, had the substance restated to him in Chinese, admitted the accuracy of the contents, but also refused to sign.15
At the ensuing jury-waived trial in the District Court for the Northern District of California the government introduced Toy's oral bedroom statements, the heroin surrendered by Yee, and the two unsigned statements.16 The trial court admitted all four items over defense objections that they were inadmissible as fruits of unlawful arrests or of attendant searches.17 The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions.18
Whether the oral statements made by Toy in his bedroom at the time of his arrest were admissible against him?19
No. The agents lacked probable cause for Toy's arrest. Hom Way had never served as an informant before. He provided only vague information identifying a laundry on Leavenworth Street operated by someone known only as Blackie Toy. There was no basis to equate that person with James Wah Toy.
The agents then misrepresented their purpose at the door by claiming they sought laundry service. After Toy slammed the door and fled, they broke into the bedroom without a warrant. Toy's oral statements implicating Johnny Yee were made immediately after the agents rushed into the bedroom, placed him under arrest, and handcuffed him while his wife and child slept nearby.22 These circumstances establish that the statements were obtained by exploitation of the illegal entry and arrest rather than by any intervening act of free will.23
Toy's oral bedroom statements were inadmissible against him as the fruit of the unlawful arrest.24
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Justice Douglas joined the Court's opinion.25 He did so because nothing the Court holds is inconsistent with his belief that having had time to get a warrant, probable cause alone could not have justified the arrest of petitioner Toy without a warrant.26 He adheres to the views he expressed in Jones v. United States.27
What he said in the Jones case had been earlier stated by Mr. Justice Jackson in Johnson v. United States.28 The point of the Fourth Amendment is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence.29 Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime.30
Whether the heroin recovered from Johnny Yee's residence was admissible against Toy?31
No. Toy's inadmissible bedroom statements directly led the agents to Yee's house on Eleventh Avenue, where they entered, arrested Yee, and recovered the heroin from a bureau drawer.34 The prosecutor conceded at trial that the drugs would not have been found except that Toy helped the agents locate them.35 No independent source or attenuation broke the causal chain between the illegal arrest of Toy and the discovery of the heroin.36
The heroin was inadmissible against Toy.37
Whether Wong Sun's unsigned written statement was admissible against him?38
A statement is admissible when the connection between an illegal arrest and the statement has become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint.39 This is particularly true where the defendant was released on his own recognizance after arraignment and later returned voluntarily to give the statement.40
Yes. Wong Sun was released on his own recognizance after arraignment on June 4 and returned voluntarily several days later to the Narcotics Bureau office where Agent William Wong advised him of his rights and took his statement.41 The passage of time and the voluntary return rendered the connection between his own warrantless arrest and the statement sufficiently attenuated under Nardone v. United States.42
Wong Sun's unsigned written statement was admissible against him.43
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Justice Clark dissented from the reversal of Wong Sun's conviction.44 He maintained that Wong Sun's statement was the fruit of Toy's illegal arrest and therefore inadmissible against Wong Sun as well.45 He would have reversed both convictions on that ground.46
Clark viewed the majority's approach as creating an unnecessary puzzle that weakened established probable cause standards.47 He argued that the Court had dashed to pieces the heretofore recognized standards of probable cause by applying rigid mechanical standards with the benefit of hindsight rather than the probabilities and practical considerations that reasonable and prudent men apply in the field.48 Clark emphasized that the information from Hom Way was reliable because the informant was under arrest and had implicated himself in a narcotics purchase, providing strong grounds for the officers to act.49
Whether Toy's unsigned written statement could provide corroboration for Wong Sun's statement?50
No. Toy's unsigned statement was made after the conspiracy had ended and therefore could not corroborate Wong Sun's admissions.53 The trial judge considered all portions of both statements as bearing on the guilt of both petitioners.54 The inadmissible Toy statement may have tipped the scales on the corroboration question.55
Toy's unsigned statement could not corroborate Wong Sun's statement.56
Whether the heroin recovered from Johnny Yee's residence could provide sufficient corroboration for Wong Sun's statement?57
A conviction resting on an uncorroborated admission or confession cannot stand.58 The corroborative evidence must fortify the truth of the confession without independently establishing every element.59 Particular care is required when the crucial element of possession is proved solely by the accused's admissions.60
No. The record does not establish that the heroin alone provided sufficient corroboration independent of the inadmissible Toy statement.6162 The heroin found at Yee's residence might have sufficed to corroborate Wong Sun's admissions that he delivered heroin to Yee and smoked heroin there. But the trial judge may also have relied on the inadmissible Toy statement for corroboration.63 Because the judge might have found the narcotics alone insufficient, the conviction cannot stand.64
The record does not establish that the heroin alone provided sufficient corroboration independent of the inadmissible Toy statement.
Whether the convictions of Toy and Wong Sun could stand on the remaining admissible evidence?65
No. After excluding Toy's bedroom statements and the heroin as to Toy, no competent evidence remained to support Toy's conviction.68 For Wong Sun, the only potential corroboration was the heroin itself.69 But the trial judge may have improperly considered Toy's inadmissible statement, requiring a new trial.70
Neither conviction could stand on the remaining admissible evidence.71
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Joined by Justice Stewart
Justice Harlan dissented from the holdings that Toy's oral statement and the heroin were inadmissible.72 He concluded that the agents had probable cause to arrest Toy even without a warrant.73 The statement and heroin were therefore admissible.74
Harlan would have affirmed both convictions on that basis.75 He rejected the majority's view that the information from Hom Way was too vague to support the arrests.76 Harlan stressed that the identification of Blackie Toy and the directions to his laundry were sufficiently accurate for the officers to locate him promptly.77
He also noted that Toy's flight upon seeing the badge provided additional evidence of guilt that supported probable cause, and he viewed the majority's application of Miller v. United States as misplaced given the clear identification by the officers and the exigent circumstances inherent in narcotics cases.78